Abstract
Biogenic amines are nitrogenous compounds that posses biological activity. The source of its production is the microbial decarboxylation of amino acids. These compounds are found in various types of cheeses. The aim of this work was to determine the concentration of biogenic amines (histamine, tyramine and cadaverine) in some Egyptian cheese varieties. Sixty samples of Ras, Cheddar and Gouda cheeses (20 each) were collected randomly from hyper-markets and small-markets in Kafrelsheikh Governorate. The concentration of biogenic amines was assayed by using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Tyramine was the most biogenic amine formed at high concentration in Ras cheese of both hyper and small-markets (total mean, 20.67± 3.84 mg/100g) followed by histamine (total mean, 16.27± 3.03mg/100g) and cadaverine (total mean, 12.23± 2.49 mg/100g). While Cheddar cheese followed by Gouda cheese showed concentrations of the examined biogenic amines lesser than that of Ras cheese. Matching these levels with the recommended standard by FDA (2001), high levels of biogenic amines in the examined cheese varieties exceeded the permissible value (10mg/100g) where 70% (each); 70, 80 and 50, 60% of hyper and small-markets Ras cheese samples were exceeded FDA permissible value for histamine, tyramine and cadaverine, respectively and cheddar cheese samples of hyper and small markets showed 50% (each); 50, 60 and 30, 40% were exceeded the permissible value, respectively, while 20, 40; 30, 50 and 30, 40% for hyper and small markets Gouda cheese samples, respectively, which poses a threat to public health. The public health importance of these biogenic amines was discussed and the recommendations were put.
Highlights
Milk and milk products are very important in human nutrition and, among them; cheese is considered a good source of protein, vitamins and minerals
Significant differences appeared between hyper and small-markets as a result of histamine levels in the examined cheese samples
El-Zahar (2014) revealed that histamine concentration in Ras cheese samples was ranged from 12± 0.96 to 26± 2.4 mg/100g according to ripening/storage period (6-24 months)
Summary
Milk and milk products are very important in human nutrition and, among them; cheese is considered a good source of protein, vitamins and minerals. Biogenic amines are compounds commonly present in living organisms in which they are responsible for many essential functions They can be naturally present in many foods such as fruits and vegetables, meat, fish, chocolate and milk, but they can be produced in high amounts by microorganisms through the activity of amino acid decarboxylases (Ten Brink et al, 1990). Cheese provides an ideal environment for the production of BAs but amine concentration differs widely and depends on several factors, such as, cheese variety, storage temperature, ripening time and microbial population (Vale and Gloria, 1997) Other factors such as, level of proteolysis (availability of free amino acids), pH, water activity, salt-in-moisture level, bacterial counts and synergistic effect between micro-organisms have large effect on production and accumulation of BAs (Gardini et al, 2001). Tyramine and histamine are the most abundant and frequent BAs in cheese (Fernández et al, 2007)
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